Policemen should salute journalists, BCC deputy chairman says

The policemen should raise their hand to the cap in front of the press, which is also a power in the state, considers Valeriu Frumusachi, deputy chairman of the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC). He made such a statement at a round table meeting on November 7 as part of discussions on the incidents from the past half a year when journalists from a number of television channels were mistreated or even detained by the police while they were filming different events. The BBC chairman Gheorghe Gorincioi said that the realities in the Moldovan society bring not only the expected results but also surprises. He gave as example the incidents of March 27 and October 19, when employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ill-treated several TV crews. But Victor Stepaniuc, chairman of the parliamentary commission for culture, science, education and mass media, said that these incidents were examined and in some cases the TV crews can be blamed because they break certain restrictions when filming. On March 27, the crews of the television channels Pro TV Chisinau, TV7 and DTV were maltreated by the police while they were filming the members and supporters of the Liberal Party that were heading for the precursors’ monuments to lay flowers. The team of Pro TV was taken to the police commissariat. On October 19, policemen with Kalashnikov rifles ill-treated the reporter and cameraman of Pro TV Chisinau, Angela Gonta and Vlad Culiomza, who were filming how policemen and doctors were evacuating a man from a Chisinau building.